Inhalation/exhalation valve unit having light movable components



Feb. 1, 1966 N. c. KOESTER ,3

INHALATION/EXHALATION VALVE UNIT HAVING LIGHT MOVABLE COMPONENTS FiledMarch 19, 1962 IN VEN TOR 12 7Z02'man fllfoesi er ATTORNEY.

United States Patent Filed Mar. 19, 1962, Ser. No. 180,542 4 Claims.(Cl. 137-'64) This invention relates to a valve unit associated with abreathing apparatus of the demand type and supplied with oxygen underpressure, said unit being adapted to control the flow of oxygen bothinto a breathing mask or a breathing mouthpiece, and also to control theexhalation therefrom of the foul air.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a valve unit of theabove described character which will prevent ambient air from beingaccidentally drawn inwardly through the exhalation valve as aconsequence of periodic vibrations in the gases involved or of suddenchanges in the inertia or momentum of both the gases and the mechanicalparts of the unit, particularly at those times when the inlet pressureof the oxygen is very low.

Other objects of the invention and practical solutions thereof aredescribed in detail in the following description, and are illustrated inthe accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a vertical, medial, longitudinal section through one form ofmy improved inhalationexhalation valve unit.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, vertical, medial, longitudinal section througha modified form of my invention, showing the same in the positions whichare assumed by some of its component parts when the inlet pressure dropsvery low.

FIG. 1

For convenience, it will be assumed in this description that thebreathing fluid which is supplied to the unit is pure oxygen, althoughdiluted oxygen or pure compressed air may be supplied instead. Also, theinvention will be described precisely as it is here illustrated, both isto be definitely understood that the breadth of the invention is to bemeasured solely by its intrinsic, patentable novelty and by the scope ofthe appended claims.

The casing 3 (consisting primarily of the upper and lower casingsections 3a and 3b) is clamped in the conventional manner to the walls 4and 5 of a breathing mask (not shown) by a flanged clamping ring 6 whichhas a threaded engagement with the threads 7 of said upper casingsection 3a and is located within the interior of said mask. The centralweb 8 of said clamping ring 6 is provided with three pie-shapedapertures it) to permit the free flow of fresh oxygen from the breathingcompartment 11 of the casing 3 into the interior of the mask, or, viceversa, the reverse flow of foul or exhaled air from said mask into saidbreathing compartment 11.

Fresh oxygen is supplied to the casing 3 through an inlet 12 and isallowed to flow, during the inhalation cycle, from said inlet 12 to saidbreathing compartment 11 through a conventional, rubber, inhalationvalve 13. The valve seat of said inhalation valve 13 consists of anannular, sheet-metal ring 14 provided, adjacent its periphery, with aplurality of kidney-shaped apertures 15 which permit exhaled air to flowfrom the breathing compartment 11 down through the rubber exhalationvalve 16 and into the outlet 17. The periphery of this exhalation valve16 is reinforced by a sheet-metal backing plate ring 18 which iscemented to the lower face of the said exhalation valve. This exhalationvalve is so molded that, in the position shown, it makes firm butresilient contact with its annular, knife-edge, valve seat 20. To

3,232,304 Patented Feb. 1,1966

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provide hermetic sealing, the inner, annular edge of this exhalationvalve 16 is provided with an annular bead 21 which is pressed into asuitable annular groove 22 which is formed in the top fiat face of acompression tube 23. The latter is pushed up against the lower flat faceof the sheet-metal ring 14 by a clamping ring 24 which is threaded at 25into the lower end of the upper sect-ion 3a of the casing 3. Adjacentits periphery, this clamping ring 24 is provided with an annular row ofapertures 26 which permit foul air to pass through said ring 24 into theambient atmosphere.

Arranged below said exhalation valve 16 is a duallycorrugated,ring-shaped, rubber, balancing diaphragm 27 whose outer and innerannular edges are provided with beads 28 and 30 to ensure hermeticsealing with the lower section 3b of the casing 3. The bead 28 is heldin place by an annular sleeve or coaxial castellated ring 29 providedwith an annular row of slots 39. Intermediate its corrugations, thisbalancing diaphragm 27 is provided integrally with an annular pressurering 31 which normally is resiliently urged upwardly against the metalring 18 of the exhalation valve 16 by a helical compression spring 32.The space below said balancing diaphragm 27 may be termed a balancingchamber 33 that communicates with the inlet 12 through a balancing duct34.

Normally the balancing diaphragm 27 performs no special function, butmerely rises and falls with the exhalation valve 16. In actual practice,however, it has been found occasionally (especially when the pressure inthe inlet 12 is low) that periodic vibrations or buzzings are set up inthe gases in the unit and also that such vibrations occasionally resultfrom sudden changes of inertia or momentum of both said gases and of themechanical components of the unit. These occurrences sometimes not insuch a manner as to allow ambient air to be drawn inwardly through theexhalation valve 16. In the present invention this difficulty has beenprevented by interposing the balancing diaphragm 27 between the inlet 12and the exhalation valve 16, and interposing said diaphragm in such amanner that a sudden drop of pressure in said inlet 12 merely draws downsaid diaphragm 27 instead of opening said exhalation valve 16. Inaddition to this, any sudden or vibrational force emanating from anincrease in pressure in the breathing compartment 11, or downwardlydirected force caused by a change in inertia or momentum in theexhalation valve 16 itself, is resisted by both the inherent resilienceof the exhalation valve 16 itself and, in addition, by the resilientresistance of the helical spring 32.

It should also be noted that all of the movable parts of the presentinvention are relatively light in weight so that the forces resultingfrom inertia or momentum are comparatively small. This is because theonly moving parts of the unit are portions of the inhalation andexhalation valves 13 and 16 and of the balancing diaphragm 27.

Based upon purely empirical data, it has been found desirable to providean increase in the pneumatic force tending to close the exhalation valve16 whenever the pressure in the inlet 12 is very high. This result hasbeen effected in the present invention by having the effective diameter35 of the balancing diaphragm 27 appreciably larger than the diameter 36of the valve seat 20 of the exhalation valve 16.

FIG. 2

This figure illustrates both a slight modification of the invention andalso the position of the balancing diaphragm 27m when a drop in pressurein the inlet 12m would tend to open the exhalation valve 16m and allowinhalation from the outlet 17m if it were not for the interposition ofsaid balancing diaphragm 27m.

I claim:

1. An inhalation/exhalation valve unit having light movable componentsand adapted to control the inhalation of fresh breathing fluid into abreathing mask or a breathing. mouthpiece and to control. the exhalationtherefrom of foul breathing fluid, comprising, a casing having an:inlet, an outlet, and a breathing compartment adapted to communicatewith a breathing mask or breathing mouthpiece, an inhalation valveinterposed between said inlet and said breathing compartment, anexhalation valve including seating means interposed between saidbreathing compartment and said outlet, said exhalation val ve beingconstructed and arranged to normally be in cooperative engagement withsaid seating means, a balancing diaphragm having an exterior side incommunication with said outlet and its interior side in communica tionwith said inlet, and force-transferring means between said balancingdiaphragm and said exhalation valve whereby expansion of said balancingdiaphragm urges said exhalation valve toward its closed position, saidforce-transferring means being uni-directional, whereby con-traction ofsaid balancing diaphragm is independent of said exhalation valve.

2. An inhalation/exhalation valve unit having light movable componentsand adapted to control the inhalation of fresh breathing fluid into abreathing mask or a breathing mouthpiece and to control the exhalationtherefrom of foul breathing fluid, comprising, a casing having an inlet,an outlet, a breathing compartment adapted to communicate with abreathing mask or breathing mouthpiece, an inhalation valve interposedbetween said inlet and said breathing compartment an exhalation valveincluding seating means interposed between said breathing compartmentand said outlet, said exhalation valve being constructed and' arrangedto normally be in" cooperative engagement with said seating means, meansincluding a balancing diaphragm defining a balancing chamber incommunication with said' inlet, force-transferring means between saidbalancing diaphragm and said exhalation valve whereby expansion of saidbalancing diaphragm urges saidexhalation valve toward its closedposition, said force-transferring means being uni-directional, wherebycontraction of said balancing diaphragm is independent of saidexhalation valve, and resilient means within said balancing chamberurging said balancing diaphragm into an expanded position.

3. An inhalation/exhalation valve unit having light movable componentsand adapted to control the inhalation of fresh breathing fluid into abreathing mask or a breathing mouthpiece and to control the exhalationtherefrom of foul. breathing fluid, comprising, a casing having aninlet, an outlet, and a breathing compartment adapted to communicatewith a breathing mask or breathing mouthpiece, an inhalation valveinterposed between said inlet and said breathing compartment, an annularexhalation valve including seating means interposed between saidbreathing compartment and said outlet, said exhalation valve beingconstructed and arranged to normally be in cooperative engagement withsaid seating means, a backing plate for said exhalation valve, abalancing diaphragm having its interior side in communication with saidinlet, and a pressure ring, carried by said balancing diaphragm forcontact with said exhalation valve, backing plate, whereby expansion ofsaid balancing diaphragm urges said exhalation valve toward its closedposition, said balancing diaphragm. contracting independently of saidexhalation valve.

4. An inhalation/exhalation valve unit having light movable componentsand adapted to control the inhalation of fresh breathing fluid into abreathing mask or a breathing mouthpiece and tocontrol the exhalationtherefrom of foul breathing fluid, comprising, a casing having an inlet,an outlet, a breathing compartment adapted to communicate with abreathing mask or breathing. mouthpiece, an inhalation valve, meanssupporting said inhalation valve between said inlet and said breathingcompartment, an exhalation valve including seating means interposedbetween said breathing compartment and said outlet, said exhalationvalve being constructed and arranged to normally be in cooperativeengagement with said seating means, said exhalation valve being movableindependently of said inhalation valve and support means, meansineluding a balancing diaphragm defining a balancing chamher incommunication with said inlet, force-transferring means between saidbalancing diaphragm and said exhalation valve whereby expansion of saidbalancing diaphragm urges said exhalation valve toward its closedposition, and resilient means urging said diaphragm into an expandedposition, said force-transferring means being uni-directional, wherebycontaction of said balancing diaphragm is independent of said exhalationvalve.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,820,469 1/1958Seeler 137-64 2,954,793 10/1960 Seeler 13764 3,035,594 5/1962 Bloom eta1. 137-63 3,036,584 5/1962 Lee 128-142 3,088,477 5/1963 Bloom 137--64ISADOR WEIL, Primary Examiner.

1. AN INHALATION/EXHALATION VALVE UNIT HAVING LIGHT MOVABLE COMPONENTSAND ADAPTED TO CONTROL THE INHALATION OF FRESH BREATHING FLUID INTO ABREATHING MASK OR A BREATHING MOUTHPIECE AND TO CONTROL THE EXHALATIONTHEREFROM OF FOUL BREATHING FLUID, COMPRISING, A CASING HAVING AN INLET,AN OUTLET, AND A BREATHING COMPARTMENT ADAPTED TO COMMUNICATE WITH ABREATHING MASK OR BREATHING MOUTHPIECE, AN INHALATION VALVE INTERPOSEDBETWEEN SAID INLET AND SAID BREATHING COMPARTMENT, AN EXHALATION VALVEINCLUDING SEATING MEANS INTERPOSED BETWEEN SAID BREATHING COMPARTMENTAND SAID OUTLET, SAID EXHALATION VALVE BEING CONSTRUCTED AND ARRANGED TONORMALLY BE IN COOPERATIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID SEATING MEANS, ABALANCING DIAPHRAGM HAVING AN EXTERIOR SIDE IN COMMUNICATION WITH SAIDOUTLET AND ITS INTERIOR SIDE IN COMMUNICATION WITH SAID INLET, ANDFORCE-TRANSFERRING MEANS BETWEEN SAID BALANCING DIAPHRAGM AND SAIDEXHALATION VALVE WHEREBY EXPANSION OF SAID BALANCING DIAPHRAGM URGESSAID EXHALATION VALVE TOWARD ITS CLOSED POSITION, SAIDFORCE-TRANSFERRING MEANS BEING UNI-DIRECTIONAL, WHEREBY CONTRACTION OFSAID BALANCING DIAPHRAGM IS INDEPENDENT OF SAID EXHALATION VALVE.